We Win Appeal & Mid-O Warm-Up

Lots of good news to report.  The SCCA Club Racing Board thoroughly reviewed the history of the CN rules since the inception of the P1 rule change 2 1/2 years ago.  After confirming the original intent was to allow for an unrestricted engine build, they reversed their prior decision and our developed motor is now approved for competition again.  So we will get to show what we got...can't ask for anymore than that.

Our maiden outing at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course located in the beautiful farm countryside near Lexington was truly memorable.  This course is steeped in history as the USA's best have raced here over the years--Indy car preceded us just the week before.  It is a highly technical track but flows like a roller coaster and takes some time to get down pat.

I'd run the track hundreds of times on my IRacing simulator so at least knew where I was going, but there are many subtle nuances you can only learn on-track.  With the exception of the very last race at the end of Sunday, we improved each time out.  The weekends activities included 3 test sessions and 4 official timed events (Q1, Race 1, QRace 2, Race 3) and we kept our season long streak alive but just barely...by just 3/1000s of a second over a fast bunch of F1000 drivers.  We've set fastest lap in every quali and race and won overall every time we've finished this year. 

It was great to get to meet other racers, crew chiefs, mechanics, etc. and jaw bone about what it will take to win the Runoffs.  We were able to turn consistent laps in the 1:21 range which historically would measure up quite well.  But a couple of local insiders think it will take 1:19s to get pole and race laps in the 1:20s to win.  So if that's the case we've got some work to do and we'll be going all out from this point on.  Our new race engineer and driver coach, Eric Purcell, was on-hand and he's been a fantastic addition to our program.  He knows the track well and is a wealth of knowledge.  He will put together a full testing program for us to try out during 4 days of practice preceding the Runoffs.

Jason will give the new car a thorough going over in preparation for the Runoffs.  It ran flawlessly this past weekend and we never placed a wheel wrong or went off track.  Jason is a true master mechanic and solved a difficult problem by simply thinking it through during a late Friday night at the track.  I was amazed Saturday morning when his idea worked perfectly.

Debut of the New Girl!

As you know from my past blogs, getting weight off a race car is one of the best things you can do for speed and fast lap times.  So last year after the Runoffs, I challenged Norma Auto Concept to figure out how to get the lead out as we were still crossing the scales almost 100 lbs. over weight.  The factory came up with a new list of light weight parts that we ordered and planned to introduce in 2016.  As the year got underway and the factory came up with more improvements and upgrades, we decided to just wait and get enough parts to build a new car from scratch.

Jason took on the immense task of building the car from the crate of parts that arrived in his shop.  His goal was to look at every part, hose, wire, bolt, fitting, bracket, fastener, etc. and, if possible, make it lighter.  In a perfect world, the new Norma with me in it would cross the scales at the end of a race just over the minimum weight of 1,350 lbs.

So last weekend was the culmination of this herculean effort as chassis #24/2016 made her debut at Laguna Seca in front of a crowd of supporters attending a Team Cranbrook broker event...no pressure here.

After a rocky start with a mysterious electrical gremlin finally dispatched, the car came alive and performed as expected within 5 laps of running the car in anger for the first time.  We put it on pole in Q2 and won the Sunday race easily.  Put it this way, I'm not sharing any more details that may cause our competitors to whine like babies to the SCCA's Club Racing Board.  The answer on our appeal of the new engine rules should come down from the CRB next week.

Also next week, we head to Mid-Ohio for tune-up regional races and my first time on track there.  Then home for final preparations before returning to Mid-Ohio in mid-September for the Big Show.

Cranbrook's Broker Day gave our valued partners a chance to see Team Cranbrook Racing up close and personal.

We're on to Mid-Ohio!

Regional Tune-Ups and Rule Book Blues

Since the last Majors race in the Pacific Northwest, we've run two more weekends in the San Francisco regional series at the iconic tracks of Laguna Seca and Sears Point aka Sonoma Raceway.  It is rumored that Sears Point will be hosting the 2018 Runoffs, so it was a great chance to see where we stand two years in advance.  We've not run here in four years and never with our current car.  Normally we've been in Portland on the 4th of July weekend, but since we'd already wrapped up the Western Conference title it was a great chance to come back to Sonoma.

Our Laguna weekend went smoothly and we cruised to a pair of poles and wins.  Then, shortly thereafter, a bomb shell was dropped on our engine development program as the Club Racing Board of the SCCA ruled that we were going to be held to the engine specifications of FIA Appendix J, Article 259 instead of a specific line reference to the engine specification in their own rule book known as the General Competition Rules or simply the GCR.  We have appealed this change in interpretation and are hopeful for a reversal.  In the meantime, we are scrambling to get one of our engines changed back to stock configuration so we can go either way depending on the final ruling.  This doesn't seem quite fair given the Runoffs are less than 90 days away.  Check out the dyno runs on the motor below.

This change, if not overturned, will definitely hurt our horsepower output as well as narrow our power band going forward.  So the event at Sonoma took on more meaning as it may be the last time we were going to be able to run this engine set-up.  Needless to say, I was really looking forward to getting on track.   We typically test on used tires from the prior event and switch to new sticker tires in the first qualifying effort.  Then we run them for the rest of the weekend--a total of 4 sessions with two qualifying outings and two races (approximately 2 hours of track time).

One of the highlights of the weekend is going out on sticker tires and then finding their limit in short order in the first qualifying session.  Ideally, all of this happens in a controlled manner that minimizes each successive lap time and damage to the tires that would impact the rest of the weekend.  When you do it right it is quite rewarding.  The fastest we went in practice on the used tires was 1:29.5 and the all-time track record was 1:27.106, done coincidently 4 years ago by Lee Alexander in a DSR Stohr WF-1.  I remember him passing me by like I was standing still in my old Norma.  So we needed to pick up 2.4 seconds to challenge for this all-time track record.  Watch to see what happens.

So, in the end, we came up short by 7/10s of a second but still put on an impressive performance making it the 2nd fastest lap ever run and a new P1 record.  We developed a fuel delivery problem in the first race but still finished first on an oiled-down track.  We started from the back in race 2 after missing qualifying due to the time needed to diagnose the problem and get the car fixed.  No problem, though, as we cruised from last to first in the first lap and drove away from the field.

Wolf Hunting Through the Trees at Pacific Raceways

We came to the Pacific Northwest and Pacific Raceways in search of another Majors win to give us the national points title and a shot at the elusive "Super Sweep".  The national points title is made up of your seven best races in Major's events and one more win would give us a perfect seven wins and 175 points.  The track is a throwback to bygone days when safety mattered little.  The entire backside is run through the forest with trees not far from the track's edge.  If you think too much about it, you'd become paralyzed with fear so best to just act like they don't exist.

Rain threatened for much of the first 3 days, but in actuality never caused a problem.  Our run group was very small with only 6 racers making up four different classes.  However, I had one good competitor in P1 running a state of the art custom made Wolf chassis that was beautifully prepared.  This racer, Miles Jackson, also finished 3rd at the Daytona Runoffs just behind us last year.  We hadn't faced each other since then.  For most of our on-track sessions prior to the 2nd qualifying run, I had a gap of just under 1 second over Miles most of the time.  But Miles was able to up his game and get within .068 seconds of my time of 1:16.589 in the last qualifying run so it looked like a real close race was in the cards.

When race time came and we were ready to roll off pre-grid, I couldn't get my Norma going.  As I was stuck on pre-grid, Miles and the others took off behind the pace car.  Finally, we got my car going but I was forced to start from pit lane on really cold tires and couldn't go until the field had passed me by.  This basically spotted Miles over a 10 second advantage and the full length of the enormous straight away.  Check out the video to see how this turned out.

Jason, of Bulldog Motorsports, and Brian, of JFC Racing, had a good natured ribbing going on over whose lunch was going to get eaten ... Little Red Norma or the Big Bad Wolf. So in that spirit, enjoy our Wolf Hunt.

Jason and I take our hats off to Miles and Brian (JFC Racing) for being ultimate sportsmen and helping us get a severely cracked exhaust header welded up at their shop near the track.  Without their assistance, we more than likely would have scratched out.  Their facilities, haulers and race cars are always exquisitely prepared and neat to see up close...a true class act.  They have made big strides in their development effort and should be a factor at the Runoffs.

Check out the post-race interview here.

The Art of Passing

We went to a double regional event at Thunderhill this past weekend to continue to work on our set-up at this track since we made the "big" change earlier this year.  Last time we were here at the Majors event in March we did manage to barely break our old qualifying record, but not our old race record which stands as the fastest lap ever turned in a race in SCCA competition at THill.  So the focus of the weekend was to make the car better and reset the all-time race lap record.

In testing, we scorched the track with two back-to-back laps in the mid to high 1:35's, a first for us.  To up our odds of duplicating this feat,  we waited and put new sticker tires on for the first race.  Bringing our new Avon tires up to temperature correctly means a slow gradual build-up of heat that requires patience.  With ideal cool morning temperatures after a rainstorm the previous night, this meant more laps than normal...about 5 total.  So just as we finally are ready to go for it, we catch the back of the field and the passing began.  Normally you can find a hole in traffic and get in a few good unobstructed laps.  Not this time, the race went green for the whole 25 minutes and we had to pick our way through traffic for the final 10 laps.  Even though we never got the clear lap we wanted, we did accomplish the goal and took 7/10's off the old record--it is now 1:36.574.

All the group 2 competitors did a great job of racing hard and clean as we made our way through to lap the field.  At the end of the weekend, Stew Tabak, a fellow racer in formula Mazda, told me he appreciated my courtesy on track in not over-pushing and causing any problems as we knifed our way through...that comment made my weekend.  Enjoy the highlight video we've entitled "The Art of Passing" as the dream season continues.

Click on the picture to view The Art of Passing.

Dream Season, Super Sweep and Other Musings

Leading the way at Buttonwillow

We are 5 weekends and 10 races into the season and, so far, no one has matched our pace on track.  We've had one DNF from a broken electrical connector but otherwise we've won every race entered.  This past weekend was no exception at the Buttonwillow Majors event and again we crushed the all-time SCCA track record in each race.  Ultimately we lopped about 4 seconds off the old race record in turning a 1:37.321 and averaging 108 mph on the 2.9 mile track.  In Q2 we turned a weekend best time of 1:36.513.  So the season is off to an exceptional start as we near the halfway mark.  We now hold the all-time track records on Buttonwillow's two most challenging configurations.

Several years ago the SCCA started a special award for something called the Super Sweep.  The Super Sweep is the most challenging award a Club Racer can achieve.  To earn the award the driver must (in a single class):

1. win a Majors Conference Championship
2. win at one of 10 key Majors races
3. win the national point standings
4. win the National Championship Runoffs

We have pretty much wrapped up #1 and #2 and are currently 2nd in the national point standings and need one more win to clinch that honor.  So we are adding another Majors event to the calendar at the end of May for Pacific Raceways in Kent, WA.  It's a classic old track in the Pacific Northwest region.  If we can get another win we will achieve the maximum points possible and check off #3 above.

Of course, the hardest part and the real focus of our season is #4, a win at the Runoffs.  We've got a plan to up our game to a whole new level for that shot at the gold medal at Mid-Ohio.  Stay tuned... and watch the post race interview here.

Smiling for my son after a satisfying win on Sunday.  Thanks for coming Aaron.

Thunderhill Major

San Francisco Region decided to try a bold move and have its Major's event contested on two different tracks--the so called 3-mile and 5-mile.  For whatever reason, it didn't attract many participants in my class but overall had a decent sized field.  We previously had raced on the original version of the 5-mile on opening day a couple of years ago.  It was fun to drive on it but many questioned how much passing could take place on the super twisty west section.  So for this event, a new iteration was created that eliminated the worst of the single file stretches.  In my opinion, this new version is a big improvement and I'm in favor of trying this format again next year.

The car ran great all weekend long and we were the fastest car on track by a bunch.  We brought home two poles and two wins and now we have a big lead in the Western Conference as well as the San Francisco Regional Championship.  Also, we were able to break our old qualifying record on the 3-mile track by a hundredth...the new record is now 1:36.448.  Watch that lap here or on the Race Video page.

On Sunday, my camera failed so no video from the Sunday afternoon feature race on the 5-mile track.  We set a blistering pace with a fastest lap of 2:39.983 which now becomes the new track record.  Tim Day is coming back for a re-match at the next event at Buttonwillow.

Jason's kids came to the track and some great photos emerged of them enjoying the action.

Jackson wearing the lucky hat.

Willow Springs--Fast, Bumpy & Kinda Scary

Anyone who has followed racing through the years knows that it has gone from being a very dangerous sport to one with manageable risk.  Most tracks have been improved with modern safety features and generous runoff areas.  Well, Willow Springs is a throw back to the beginning as it opened in 1953, is virtually the same as then, and touts itself as the "Fastest Road in the West."  The pavement is in poor shape, the edge of the track at the fastest corner has a raised asphalt edge just waiting to grab your tire, and any off track excursion is going to be through knife-edged rocks.

I'd never been to WS before, but had heard stories about it.  I'd already mentally committed to leaving myself a margin of error at key spots around the track.  We had a semi-private test day scheduled the day before the Majors weekend was to begin.  We did get two sessions in to learn the track but that was it, as the clutch kept giving us issues.  Jason and Chris split the car in half about six times over the course of the weekend working on it and finally got the clutch issue solved.

In qualifying with new tires, we finally got in a couple of clean laps in the 1:13.7 range that easily put us on pole by two seconds over Tim Day Jr.  Our average speed on these laps is about 124 mph and peaks at about 147 mph headed into turn 9.  It is very difficult to get an unimpeded lap as slower traffic interferes a lot.  Check out my fastest lap of the weekend here in Q1.  We also secured the P1 track record during the first race.

In race 1 on Saturday, Tim again out accelerated me into the first turn just like he did at Auto Club Speedway last time we started side by side.  It's a little maddening to me to have to give up the lead because my car gets outgunned from the get go.  Our engine builder is still working on getting more power so I'm hopeful we can prevent this by the time of the Runoffs.  We had a great little go at each other for 3 or 4 laps so enjoy the show on the Race Video page or here.  We had some light contact that damaged my nose but we ultimately prevailed and won the race handily.

Race 2 on Sunday was a repeat at the start except, before I could get around Tim, double yellow flags came out for an incident and during this pace car period an electrical wire connection broke at the alternator and my car died on track and had to be towed in.  Tim went on to get the win and our rivalry continues to grow now that Chris Ferrell has announced his retirement from the sport after the Auto Club Speedway event where we trounced him.  Chris was a great competitor, 3-time national champion, and I'll miss racing him.

Off To An Impressive Start

WOW is all I can say to just how well the season started.  We've taken a major leap forward in the development of our car.  We've brought on EFM Racing for engineering assistance and the first tweaks to the set-up have yielded big time gains at both Buttonwillow and Auto Club Speedway.  The car performed flawlessly at our first race last weekend at ACS and we won going away.  We were the fastest car on track by a lot in a 30+ car run group.  We broke the all-time track record in qualifying turning a 1:32.329 and followed it by breaking the race record in P1 with a 1:32.646.  There were 6 competitors in P1 including Chris Ferrell, Tim Day, and Jon VanCaneghem, all fast and capable drivers.  We couldn't have asked for a better opening weekend and we accomplished everything we wanted.  So much so, we skipped race 2 at ACS as it was run in the rain on Sunday.  The track doesn't drain well and standing water created treacherous conditions.

Next race is at Willow Springs in SoCal, a track we've never run before.  It is one of the fastest tracks in the USA and our speed will average about 125 mph.  Let's see if we can back up this performance with another good one.

You can catch the start of the Auto Club Speedway race and the track record run on the Race Video page or here.

The Season Begins

Our 2016 schedule is now out (get it here) and we start the season early at the end of January at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana...the site of our last race.  Chris Ferrell is coming back to P1 so looking forward to our first dust-up right from the get-go.  This event is shaping up to have several other top competitors in attendance.  We'll have a few new things to try out from what we learned last time.  This will be a year of refinement as our basic package of the Norma chassis and Honda power is excellent.  I'm also adding data collection to the car which is a first for me.

Over the off-season, Jason won a very prestigious award, "Mechanic of the Year", from the Sports Car Club of America.  This prize is nationally recognized, not always given every year, and his equivalent of winning the Runoffs.  Jason is so deserving of this award and the recognition that comes with it.  He puts more effort and heart into what he does than just about anyone.  I feel honored to have Jason as my head mechanic.  Jason's company, Bulldog Motorsports, is thriving in a very small niche business that helps make championships possible.  In addition to our Western Conference and NORPAC Championships, he supported two other teammates in two different classes who also won championships in 2015.  Visiting his shop is always a thrill as the diversity of race cars on display is impressive.

Our schedule for 2016 is the most ambitious yet, 12 events and 23 races.  Jason and I have a solid game plan for a great season.  Let the racing begin.

Norma all stripped down.  Chris doing the work and Jason thinking out loud...